SEO Header Title

Amid significant economic and political processes that pose challenge to Azerbaijan, seemingly out of nowhere, the constitutional ammendment placing two-term restriction upon presidency has suddenly become a top issue on the agenda. The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), senior government officials and pro-government representatives of the Azeri intelligentsia have introduced the matter to the parliament. The Azeri parliament is in a rush to approve the constitutional referendum on changing the constitution of Azerbaijan in order to allow the incumbent president Ilham Aliyev to run for presidency for the third term in 2013. The supporters of lifting the term limits are trying to substantiate their arguments with the examples drawn from international experience. To accomplish the task, some proponents of this idea have cited examples from the parliamentary systems of Great Britain and Turkey, where prime ministers are not subject to term limits. One time master of social realism and a recent recipient of the presidential medal, painter Tahir Salahov has pointed out that there are no term limits for the French president. However, another Aliyev supporter, MP Anar Mammadkhanli goes even further to criticize the anti-democratic nature of the American practice insofar as, in his opinion, the two-term limit denies the people the right to reelect their beloved leader for the third time. In such context it is appropriate to discuss the experience of the country, which was the first to introduce term limits to the head of the government in the modern world - the experience of the United States of America.

When the United States declared its independence in 1776, it was established as a republic founded on anti-monarchic ideals. The first republic of the modern world subscribed to the philosophy that by nature all humans were flawed, and therefore could not be trusted with the sole right to govern. The founders of the United States believed that the only correct approach in this case was to establish a political system with checks and balances so that imperfect people would balance each other and as a result, facilitate the maintenance of a fair political environment. The power in the United States was distributed horizontally between the federal and state governments and vertically, as inaugurated in the division of powers between legislative, executive and judicial branches of the government.

After the first president of the US George Washington served his two terms (1789-1793 and 1793-1797) he stepped down, rejecting the idea of reelection for the third term. In doing so, George Washington founded a political tradition in the US, according to which presidents of this country would limit their aspiration to holding the office of the president to the maximum of two terms. Some modern US historians consider this particular act – quitting -- by George Washington as something that perhaps even outweighed his contributions to the independence struggle of the US, and his role in establishing a powerful country from scratch. The first president of the US, who refused to accept the titles such as "your highness" or "your excellency" and demanded to be called simply as "Mr. President," did an immense service to his country by voluntarily ceasing to be the leader of his nation. George Washington, by stepping down after two terms, neutralized the danger of a rollback into a monarchical system. Having a living president peacefully step down and transfer power to a different person turned into an extremely valuable and organic part of the American political culture.

Any political leader, who decided to cling to his office and refused to leave, by claiming a status as someone "special," "great leader" and "irreplaceble" would be inconveniently forced to juxtapose his accomplishments with those of George Washington. A person who turned untrained American farmers into a formidable army and defeated the strongest military machine of his time, the Great Britain, a person who founded the first republic in the modern world and a person, whose name is given to the capital city of the greatest superpower - George Washington thought he was not great enough to stay and lead his country for the third term. Following Washington’s departure from politics, Thomas Jefferson in 1807 thought it was important to put term limits to many other important government positions and wrote: "If some termination to the services of the chief Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life" (Thomas Jefferson, Reply to Legislature of Vermont, 1807). The founding father of the US thought it was important to put term limits not only to the presidency but many other important government positions in order to prevent the entrenchment of politicians in their positions hence turning into some kind of "tsars."

The tradition established by George Washington was so powerful that despite the lack of official prohibition to running for presidency more than twice, nearly all subsequent presidents of the US abided by the rule and did not seek to run for the third term. Naturally, there were some ambitious politicians in the US, who tried to against this tradition. Notably, Ulysses Grant, the president of the US from 1869 to 1877 attempted to run for the third non-consecutive term in 1880 and Theodore Roosevelt, the president of the US from 1901 to 1909 tried to run for the third non-consecutive term in 1912. Both of these attempts were defeated by the political establishment in the US, despite the lack of any legal obstacles in the way of these people to run for the third term.

The only exception to the two-term rule was the four-term presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The second term of the presidency of FDR was to end in January 1941. The commencement of the WWII created an extraordinary situation in the country, which allowed Roosevelt to run for the third term and win it. The fourth term elections of Roosevelt took place in 1944, the year in which the US started a huge-scaled military operations in Europe and again the exceptional circumstances allowed Roosevelt to win the elections (not because he was a genius, but because of the extraordinary circumstances). However, after FDR's death in 1945, concerned Americans commenced a political campaign to officially introduce presidential term limits into the American constitution. In 1947 the US Congress passed the 22nd amendment to the Constitution prohibiting any next president to be the president of the United States for more than two terms.

Roosevelt’s experience has been quite a hit with the authoritarian rulers looking to justify their actions based on the American model of democracy. Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hugo Chavez of Venezuella have been among the most recent to refer to this experience. Shortly before handing the presidency to Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's Russia held a big conference dedicated to the heritage of Franklin Roosevelt. The Russian media at that time published numerous articles comparing Roosevelt to Putin and even calling Putin the Roosevelt of Russia. And now some politicians in Azerbaijan are in a similar haste to compare Ilham Aliyev to Roosevelt. Leaving aside the content of these comparisons, one can assume that the authors of these ideas can at least look around and see that the WWIII has not started, yet.

Applying term-limits to presidency is an idea that stems stemming from the very essence of democracy. In a democracy, all citizens are viewed as equals. In a democracy nobody is recognized to possess superhuman qualities, nobody is seen as an "ubermensch," as a person chosen by God, bestowed with the qualities to be the only person able to run the country. That is what makes a republic different from a monarchy or a dictatorship. In a democracy, human beings are regarded as inherently imperfect. It is believed that power can only increase such deficiencies, not decrease it.

The two-term limit was invented as a legal mechanism to get rid of the politicians, who would cling to power and not leave. In ancient Greece there was a practice of ostracism, by which popular politicians, heros, military commanders could be expelled from their country because of the fear that their popularity might result in the accumulation of power in one hand and the degradation of the democracy into a tyranny. Great Pericles of Athens was exiled from his country under this procedure. Also, ancient Rome meticulously practiced one year and one time term limits for most important government positions. The Roman republic came to an end precisely when this tradition came under attack by powerful generals and corrupt politicians.

The irony of the modern world is that today's "ubdermenschs" emerge in underdeveloped parts of the world where the leaders are desperately trying to convince their people of their unparalleled greatness and thus global importance. Azerbaijan may be the latest country to look into ways of indefinitely extending the rule of the currentc leader. But its crude tactics coupled with ownership of natural resources in high demand does not set it far apart from countries such as Venezuela, Russia, and other Central Asian countries which increasingly resemble feudal fiefdoms. And fiefdoms that they are, their political systems remain erratic and vulnerable to a sudden, perhaps violent, change. The civilized world better take notice.